Mark 7:14-23
Unclean and Defiled
14 Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, "Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. 15 Nothing outside a man can make him 'unclean' by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a man that makes him 'unclean.' "
17 After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable. 18 "Are you so dull?" he asked. "Don't you see that nothing that enters a man from the outside can make him 'unclean'? 19 For it doesn't go into his heart but into his stomach, and then out of his body." (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods "clean.")
20 He went on: "What comes out of a man is what makes him 'unclean.' 21 For from within, out of men's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. 23 All these evils come from inside and make a man 'unclean.' "
Matthew 8:23-27
Jesus Calms the Storm
23 Then he got into the boat and his disciples followed him. 24 Without warning, a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. 25 The disciples went and woke him, saying, "Lord, save us! We're going to drown!"
26 He replied, "You of little faith, why are you so afraid?" Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.
27 The men were amazed and asked, "What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!"
Jesus teaches us that what goes in our mouths does not defile us or make us unclean or make us evil...In His teaching I think He might also be making a statement about our lives in general and how we think about different things...There is evil out there and things, people who tempt us, and other type temptations we are challenged with each day...These are things outside us and around us, and He says nothing outside a man can make us unclean (and I think He means other things as well)...How we handle temptations and evils (outside us and around us) are what make us sin...It was not the food that made the person eating it unclean, or the evil around us making us sin, or the temptation out in the world making us sin...We do the sinning...How we handle these temptations and evils around us, is what makes us sin or not sin...If we have a temptation around us, or let us say a person around us that is wicked -we have to make that choice to go through with the temptation or follow that wicked and evil person...If we decide to take on and do the temptation or follow another's wicked path -then we have made that a part of us and a part of our lives...Our mind, and how we think, makes a choice to follow up on the temptation, and when we do -then we have sinned...If our thinking and our thoughts are either unaware of the temptation and the evil around us -we can quickly sin...Our thoughts are and become a part of us and we have taken that wrong path, where the road is wide and it can cause destruction...
If we can stay focused on God and Him, (and They are in our mind and our thoughts) we are less likely to follow up on the temptation or follow an wicked one down the wrong path...If we do not make that temptation a part of our thinking, or we can think differently about the temptation -then that temptation does not become a part of us or a part of our lives...How we handle that moment of temptation, the very choice we make at that time and the path we take right after we are confronted with the temptation, makes all the difference (unless we hold that tempting thought in our mind to use or do later)...We can choose God and His Son or choose the temptation...
If our focus and attention is on our Father and Jesus, we have better awareness about these temptations, that can slip up on us...If are lives and are minds are centered on God and His Son, with His Holy Spirit in us -then we are more on guard, when the storms and rains approach us...
It seems to me (and this is only my thought) that He is telling us that -He is a mindset (and maybe that mindset is a strong Holy Spirit in us and guiding us)...Always having God in our hearts and minds helps us during our trials of temptations...If He is firmly in our mind, it is harder for us to sin...Jesus can calm storms and answer problems in ways that only He knows how (to do)...Having faith in Him (and keeping your mind full of this faith) gets you through these trials, these winds, and these storms...